The Prayer of Agreement

SERMON: 2013-11-24--ac13115--the-prayer-of-agreement SOURCE DURATION: 00:37:37.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.98 APPROVED: false REASON: The entire sequence of candidates maintains a cohesive theological and pastoral focus (using the orchestra metaphor to explain God's purpose and the commandment to love). Since there is no clear transition to non-sermon material (music, announcement) after candidate 15, it is selected as the final token of the sermon content. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- So as I said we've been looking at recent weeks at the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness we've seen in weeks gone by is not only releasing the desire to retaliate but it's actually choosing to bless those who have hurt or offended us. I love the way scripture puts it in 1 Peter 3 verse 9, "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult but with blessing because to this you are called so that you may inherit a blessing." To be reconciled is to be restored in relationship and as we've mentioned in passing forgiveness and reconciliation while closely related are not necessarily synonymous because I can forgive my enemy and yet choose not to be friends with him. Trust one's broken. You've often heard me say is difficult to restore. Likewise I can choose to be friends with someone and yet hold grudges in my heart and the challenge of scripture for each one of us of course is that God wants us to do what we can to both forgive and to reconcile. Romans 12 18 puts it this way, "If it is possible, if it is possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." What I want to do with you this morning in the time that we have is dig a little deeper though and try to figure out from scripture why this emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation is so important from God's point of view and I'm going to try to posit with you this morning that at stake is nothing less than the authority and the power of the church to carry on in the world the mission that God has entrusted to us and I say that because of what Jesus says in the words of our text this morning, "I tell you if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven for where two or three come together in my name there I am with them." If two of you on earth agree about anything it will be done for you by my Father who is in heaven. This is sometimes called the prayer of agreement and the prayer of agreement means that if we are in agreement with God and in agreement with each other heaven will respond to our request and God will accomplish that which we are asking of him. It is an incredible promise. It is right up there with the promise of Jesus that by faith we can speak to the mountain and we can make it move. God says if two of you agree on anything that you want done it will be done by your Father who is in heaven and the key ingredient of course says Jesus is because he is present where his people gather together. Listen again to verse 20 where two or three come together in my name there I am in the midst of them. The genius of the church is not that we're so smart, so well resourced, or so gifted that we can make a difference in the world. The genius of the church is the presence of the resurrected and the exalted Jesus. When Jesus who has conquered death and hell is present in your life and in my life and we're gathered together and his presence is here then the deaf hear the lame walk the poor have good news proclaimed to them and the kingdom of God comes on earth. If two of you agree says Jesus whatever you ask it will be done for you by my Father who is in heaven. So let's try to unpack that verse a little bit because that's far removed from our typical experience of course but we need to start by understanding the context of that verse. The context is the verse that we touched on last week verse 18 of Matthew chapter 18. I tell you the truth whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Let's talk about that just a little bit. Earth of course is the realm where we live. Heaven is the realm where God lives and we know from Scripture the promise of this passage is that what we decide here on earth if in keeping with it will have gone is backed up by God himself and by God's power and the best way to understand that is to go back for just a moment to the very beginning of the creation story and you've got Adam and Eve being created to have dominion over the work of God's hands. You know that whole story? In relationship with God, God shared his power with them. They were managers on behalf of God. Along comes the devil, separates them from God and the result is what we see over here. We have been groaning under the travail of sin since the beginning of time. The very creation that Adam and Eve were to have dominion over now had dominion over them and from that day to this there isn't a one of us born into this world that doesn't one way or another experience the power of the curse but there is Jesus. He comes into the picture to restore us back to our relationship with God and back to our authority and today Jesus at the right hand of God the Father rules over all creation at the right hand of the Father and the promise of scripture is that one day we're going to sit with him on thrones we will be fully restored to our full authority in God's eternal kingdom. In the meantime we're raised with Christ spiritually in the meantime we are seated with him at the right hand of God the Father and as we are joined to him submit to his authority in the places and in the areas of our gifting he assigns us our authority once again and the result of that is that as two or three agree before God as to what it is that God wants to do God honors that authority we know that as the keys of the kingdom and Jesus promises the keys of the kingdom to Peter when he says I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. The original context there is church discipline as we open the door of the kingdom of the proclamation of the gospel or close the door of the kingdom by the exercise of church discipline the decisions that are made on earth are reflected in heaven. It's weighty it's beyond what we tend to think but it's important that we try to get our heads around that and the single key ingredient to that process Jesus points out in the words of our text is the prayer of agreement. Again I tell you if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for it will be done by my father in heaven. Again let's look a little more closely at that because that word agree in English is the Greek word symphonio. Let's see how good you are at languages what English word what did I hear symphony what is symphony symphony is defined as literally to agree in sound or harmonious and you've all heard the concept of a symphony orchestra. What's a symphony orchestra you've got all these different instruments they are in tune and together they make melody they make symphony who knows what is the opposite of symphony. There are different words but the word that I like is cacophony and cacophony is the mingling of a whole bunch of sounds that are discordant they are it jars if you've you know ever stood at an intersection and listened to cars honking and people yelling or if you've ever listened to an orchestra trying to tune up that is cacophony. Jesus says it is symphony that he is after and he says that when is God's people we are in symphony that is we are in agreement with God and at a very fundamental level in agreement with each other then whatever it is that we ask of God God will do likewise if we are not in symphony God will not do what we are asking him. Let me read you one Peter chapter 3 the verses 10 11 and 12 it's actually a quotation from the Old Testament book of the Psalms it is Psalm 34 "whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech he must turn from evil and do good he must seek peace and pursue it for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil God is looking for the prayer of agreement now understand the prayer of agreement it doesn't mean that you and I get together and we side we're going to win the lottery or you and I decide that we deserve a Cadillac or you know there are those kinds of perversions in what is known as the name it and claim it movement name it and claim it in and of itself is not wrong as long as the naming and claiming is based on the promises of scripture God promises a lot of things in scripture those things you and I can claim in agreement but that doesn't mean that every fleshly desire we have even if we agree upon it God is going to do it because it always has to be in agreement with who God is and God is committed to the coming of his kingdom so here's how this process works let's suppose that God has in mind that he wants to save a particular person let's say that person is lost in sin they are far removed from God but God in his eternal purposes has his hand on that person and he communicates to you and he communicates to me what his plan is and what his intention is I'm praying in my little corner you're praying in your little corner we come together and we discover we have the same burden on our hearts now we are in agreement we are harmonizing we are in symphony and we are lifting our symphonic prayer before God in the confidence in the confidence that God will do what we're asking him to do not because we're manipulating him not because our faith is so great and so strong but because we're meeting the conditions of his word does that make sense the deeper our agreement reaches the more we are in tune with God and in tune with each other dealing with the barriers that divide and separate covering it all with the blood of Jesus walking out that process of reconciliation and forgiveness that we've been talking about the more confident we can be that as we approach God and ask him for the purposes of his kingdom the more the blessing of God is going to flow and the more God will honor what it is that we are requiring of him Psalm 133 most of us I'm sure know it well how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity it's like precious oil poured on the head running down on the beard running down on Aaron's beard down upon the collar of his robes it is as if the dew of Herman we're falling on Mount Zion for there the Lord bestows his blessing even life forevermore if you ever looked at a map of the Middle East and you will see that Mount Herman is on the northern part of what is northeast of Israel I think it's now in Syria but it's the highest mountain in that area I think it has an elevation of 9,000 feet or something like that and it is covered with snow a good portion of the year and what happens is the snow on Mount Herban as it evaporates gets caught up by the wind currents and then it travels southward towards the dry hills of Judea or Jerusalem is and it descends as dew and that's the image that you find here the anointing oil on Aaron's head flows down his robes it is like the dew of Herman there the Lord commands his blessing life forevermore the anointing on Jesus when we are in agreement with him and in agreement with each other it flows down the road and it breeds life everywhere you can see that in your own family you can see that in any organization that you've ever been part of when God's people symphonize there the Lord's blessing descends and God accomplishes things that otherwise we could never accomplish why is forgiveness why is reconciliation such a critical issue in the body of Christ it isn't just about you or me it is about the well-being of the church because there is power when the church is together I learned very early in my own ministry that there would be answers to congregational prayers prayed in unity before God that I could not get to or see when I was praying on my own did you know that because we're two or three are gathered together there I am in the midst of them says Jesus and if two or three agree whatever they ask God well granted to us pretty significant I think do you think pretty heavy because now it's no longer just about me or you it's about life in the body because when the body is in symphony heaven moves to respond to the burdens of our heart that's what enables the church to accomplish its mission in the world so big question of course is how do we get that way and in the time that remains want to give you three very practical steps that I think each one of us has to walk through in order to be part of the solution as opposed to be part of the problem number one we must all draw our life from Jesus we must draw our life from Jesus cautions to the verses six and seven as you received Christ Jesus as Lord continue to live in him rooted and built up in him strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness as you received Christ Jesus as Lord continue to live in him and built up in him you will have noticed I'm sure as I have that the Lord Jesus gathers to himself in his body an odd assortment of people have you ever noticed that I mean if they're all like you and me we'd get along just great but you know it's rich and poor it's black and white it's famous and infamous it is successful and its failures and its its people from every walk of life and he throws us all together and then he expects us to get along with each other well if ever you've tried to get along really get along with somebody who is very unlike you then you know what a challenge that can be because ever since the Tower of Babel when God confused languages everybody has marched off in a different direction and everybody is comfortable with their own little group and they're not at all comfortable with people who are not like them and the big question throughout history the big question in Scripture is how do you break down the dividing walls how do you get the rich to hang out with the poor how do you get the black and the white to get along how do you get the famous and the infamous to rub shoulders with each other how do you get people of different temperaments nationalities and backgrounds to really value each other and to be symphony because everybody wants to play his own little instrument according to his own tune well the answer of course is Jesus because in his death and in his resurrection God has made provision for us to put off the old and to put on the new I love the way Paul puts it in the book of Galatians all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ there was neither Jew nor Greek slave nor free male nor female but you were all one in Christ Jesus it is hard for us in this day and age to begin to appreciate the gap that existed in each of those categories between Jew and Greek between slave and free male or female they lived in separate worlds they all looked down on each other and they all thought they hit a corner on the truth and Paul says in Christ all of those distinctions fall away because what Christ does is he redeems our backgrounds and he redeems our cultures he purifies our instruments if you will and then he puts them all together and he says now you play music that honors go on and guess what he's big enough to teach us how to do it so that actually we make symphony that's an amazing thing Paul writing to the Ephesians and we did a whole series on that a couple of months or so back he says in him that is in Christ you to you and Gentile are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit I wonder if we get in our hearts the radicality of the gospel of Jesus and the work that he wants to do in your life and in my life to make us that kind of people amen amen and amen because that takes the power of Jesus and so as we abide in Christ as we listen to him and let his words speak into our lives dwell in our midst then by his spirit he comes along and he blends people from different walks of life together in a way that is incomprehensible and a lot of you will know the love that God gives you for some people that in the natural you'd never ever hang around with isn't that true in fact I will tell you the measure of your spirituality is not the friends you have who are like you but the people in whose lives you invest yourself who are very different from what you are but you're there because Christ has called you and empowered you and equipped you that's the radicality of the gospel of Jesus still want to be Christian because that's where he's going and neither we get on board with that or he leaves us behind so yes it begins by remaining in union with Christ and if you think that's difficult the next one is even more difficult I think and that is to submit to biblical authority listen to Hebrews 13 verse 17 obey your leaders and submit to their authority they keep watch over you as men who must give an account obey them so that their work will be a joy not a burden for that would be of no advantage to you obey your leaders and submit to their authority think this through with me for just a moment how does a symphony orchestra make symphony you've got all these different instruments and all these different musicians how do you blend them together so that they make melody well it's not very complicated first of all they all play off the same musical score they may play different arrangements for different instruments but they're all playing the same score not only that but they all follow the same conductor imagine if they all played a different tune and nobody listened to the conductor those of you inquire sometimes you forget to pay attention to your conductor and you make not the choir here of course you make cacophony it becomes a discordant sound and so gone in scripture tells us that the function of leadership the score we play off can be said to be scripture because that prescribes for us what life in Christ looks like leadership that God raises up in the body of Christ their purpose is not to boss our lives around their purposes and to take us places where we don't want to go their purpose is like a parent to help us grow up in Christ so that we learn what our instrument is so that we can pray we can play it the best that we can play it in harmony with everybody else so that the purposes of God are accomplished in our generation Paul puts it this way he says you are the body of Christ each one of you is a part of it and in the church God is appointed first of all Apostles second prophets third teachers then workers of miracles also those who have gifts of healing those able to help others those with gifts of administering administration and those speaking in different kinds of tongues are all Apostles are all prophets are all teachers do all work miracles do all have gifts of healing do all speak in tongues to all interpret but eagerly desire the greater gifts and then he goes on to talk about the greatest gift of all which is the gift of harmony or the gift of love so we must be in union with Christ we must submit to authority that God raises up so that we can grow in our relationship with him and in our relationship with each other and then we need to make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace and you recognize that as a quotation from Ephesians chapter 4 the third verse we've quoted it a number of times in recent weeks make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace very interesting verse because you will notice unity is not something you have to create did you notice that it's something you have to keep why because in Christ you already have it and if we abide in Christ that unity will flow and it will grow our job is to maintain it in the bond of peace that is to say to avoid those things that would rupture the unity that God has created through the Holy Spirit how do we do that well a couple of very practical steps as we wind this up this morning how do we make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace well we must resolve conflicts biblically we've talked about that in recent weeks I don't need to expand on it somebody sins against you what do you do tell your 20 neighbors no you go see him so do it because that's what Jesus is you must do and if somebody comes to you and they want to dump on you tell them they must go see that person and resolve it there and if they can't do that on their own you will go with them and you will help them but in the meantime you will not participate in the gossip that breaks the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace secondly refuse to take up somebody else's conflict Proverbs 26 17 like one who seizes a dog by the ears is a passerby who meddles in a quarrel not his own graphic description can you picture taking a passing dog by the ears what do you think is gonna happen you're gonna get bit and bucked at and snarled at and one of the things that I often see happening in the body of Christ is that somebody will be upset with somebody about something rather than going to see that person and trying to resolve it biblically they bellyache to everybody and his uncle and now the person that he bellyache to or she bellyache to takes up cause for somebody else isn't that true how many times haven't you found yourself in a situation where you're mad at somebody not because they did something to you but because you heard they did something to somebody else happens a lot two problems with that number one chances are you only heard half the story you know there's his side there's her side and there's the truth somewhere is usually in between secondly unless you are called and qualified by gone to mediate in that kind of a situation you're not qualified to do that and you're gonna get bogged down because you're in over your head because people can be nasty circumstances can be difficult and they can get incredibly complicated before you know it things spin out of control don't take a passing dog by the ears or you will get your hand bitten off not very complicated we just have to do it number three we need to walk in humility the word humility comes from the word humus which is earth it literally means face down on the ground and humility isn't just going around saying poor little old me I know nothing and I have nothing now humility means that I recognize not only what my strengths are but also what my limitations are and Peter again puts it this way 1 Peter 3 8 finally all of you live in a harmony with one another be sympathetic love as brothers be compassionate and humble and Paul and Romans 12 3 by the grace given to me I say to every one of you do not think of yourself more highly than you want but rather think of yourself with a sober judgment in accordance with a measure of faith that God has given you how many times for all of us do we find ourselves in situations where we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to our own opinions our own thoughts our own reflections our own insights they get elevated into the epitome of truth when fact of the matter is chances are we don't know the full picture chances are our conclusions are wrong chances are we're just arrogant inner ignorance and a little humility would be greatly becoming humility means that I esteem others higher than myself we are called to practice humility because that's what Jesus did who though he was in the form of God laid aside his claim to divinity and humbled himself even to death on a cross well just quickly winding up love generously and by loving generously I mean love the way Jesus loves listen to Romans 15 7 welcome one another therefore as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God so let me ask you this question who does Jesus welcome well Jesus welcomes everybody that comes to him in faith in repentance regardless of how broken wounded or miserable they are in certain parts or aspects of their lives because he knows that his love is big enough to win people over how many times in our love are we not judgmental and jumping to conclusions and thinking that people need to smarten up before we can hang around with them welcome one another we need to be as inclusive as Christ and we need to be as exclusive as Christ that is to say we need to measure our relationship with people on the basis of who Jesus is and what Jesus accomplishes the big topic in and of itself we won't expand on it any further this morning but I want to end with this we need to keep an eye on the big picture go back with me to the orchestra you're one of the players in the orchestra you've been assigned a particular instrument and you train to play your instrument and your purpose is to make symphony but you don't like the guy that's sitting next to you and you don't like the way that he plays his instrument and so instead of focusing on your task you spend your time and your effort and your energy getting distracted by all the dynamics that are happening in that context and what you lose out on is the big picture which is what it's to play symphony it's to follow the musical score it is to obey the conductor because if you do your part and everybody else does their part then guess what happens you make melody you make symphony and God has a purpose for the church that purpose is to worship him that purpose is to serve him that purpose is to serve as his vehicle to reach the nations of the world and there can be a thousand and one things that we can get sidetracked by but we should never lose sight of the big picture that is that God has called us to love him above all and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves really not [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:37:33.760; remove through 00:37:37.000] that complicated if we will focus on that which matters [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:37:37.000; resume after this marked segment]